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I went for bold last night with the Brass Rail (Zachary Gelnaw-Rubin). 2 oz Highland Park 12 years (the recipe called for a blended scotch), 0.5 oz Averna, 1 dash of orange bitters (I used a mix of Regan and Fee), lemon zest.

At Dutch Kills week before last, Giuseppe made me a Cat's Meow, a drink by Aisha Sharpe from BAR. I think he said they reworked it slightly. Whatever he did, it was really delicious. It's essentially a Remember The Maine with Islay scotch instead of rye, but the phenols in the scotch really alter the sense of the drink. It's also a little drier than we make the Maine at Heaven's Dog. Here's the recipe he gave me:

It really is a delightful drink. Not as medicinal as I expected, the Islay came through, but muted. Will have to remember this one when winter comes around again. And as a bonus the syrup is excellent, and will be very nice with ice cream.

The finish of the cocktail was a little off. The Bowmore that they use at Seven Grand is a better fit than Highland Park in this drink, although in their version they use a fresh and very pungent ginger syrup that makes the scotch almost completely disappear (shame). I guess more tweaking will be in order once I get a bottle of the Bowmore.

For reference, the Seven Grand version is pictured below on the right. I was told that the red stuff was Angostura bitters, but there is just no way.

The drink on the left (Scarecrow) was like a Japanese cocktail with Scotch, orgeat, cocoa bitters. It could have made a decent dessert drink, I suppose.

For my second drink, I played it safe and got a glass of Willet rye (5 years). The cocktail on the right was a Rob Roy twist called Lawyers, Guns, & Money (Autentoshan, Barolo Chinato, Drambuie, cacao bitters) which was actually quite nice.

Our bartender became more chatty once an adjacent group left. I watched in amazement as they downed 6 or 7 cocktails a head in less than an hour (they were heavyset Americans, but still...). I guess they were making sure to take full advantage of happy hour...

Another scotch-based aperitif cocktail from a few days ago, this one fine but probably not worth repeating. Fair Isle (Kathy Casey) with barolo chinato (Cocchi), scotch (Highland Park 12), grapefruit juice (white), grapefruit bitters (BDW). I am not sold on the combination of barolo chinato with grapefruit juice, or maybe the ratios should be tweaked a little to my taste (less chinato, more scotch!).